Chapter 1
Sirius stepped out of his car and into the crisp autumn air. It was mid September and the red and brown leaves were already beginning to fall to the ground, making way for winter.
He looked up in front of him to see a small, rusty green gate in front of a house. His house, he thought with barely contained glee.
It was run down, yes. With the paint peeling and vines growing up the walls. The garden was overgrown and had a single dead tree in front of what Sirius assumed was the living room window. But it was his.
Sirius didn’t mind how derelict it was at all. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed, as James always said — usually when he broke a window trying to teach Harry (all of six months old) baseball. That was usually met with an unimpressed frown from his wife, Lily.
He would definitely call James and Peter down to help him with all the work that had to be done, give Peter a break from the boring office job he had. Sirius couldn’t even remember what he actually did.
And even without the house being fixed up, Sirius still loved it already. Honestly, if anything, the state the house was in helped reduce the price a hefty amount, which helped Sirius tremendously.
He had the money, yes, from his Uncle Alphard, who had left him everything he had when he died, but Sirius had no job yet, he was planning to get one in the record store he visited almost too frequently. He had noticed they were hiring.
This was his first home. He had run away from his family a few years prior and had been living with James, Lily and Harry for the past year or so.
When Harry was born a year and a half ago, Sirius knew it was time to find someplace for himself. He had looked for ages, everything being too expensive or too far away from his mates.
He was just about to give up when his luck turned and he found a listing for this. The house had been up for years so there was going to be no battle for it. That was good. He rang up the agent, Pandora Rosier, that night and got a viewing.
That led him to now, standing in front of his new house. He had signed the contracts three days previous and was just about to receive the keys. His heart was pounding with excitement to finally have a place of his own.
Suppressing a smile, he opened the gate, wincing as it creaked. That would need some oil. He then made his way up the footpath to the front door. Before he could reach it Pandora came out of the house and waved.
“Oh good, you’re here!” She said once he reached her. “Come in, come in.” She waved him in and shut the door behind them.
Once they were both standing in the entrance hall of the house, Pandora pulled out a clipboard and started fiddling with the documents clipped to it while muttering to herself.
Sirius quite liked Pandora. She wasn’t boring and just overall normal like everyone else. She was eccentric and just overall refreshing. Her clothes were always long flowy skirts and colourful tops with loads of accessories. Her hair always had charms and other things weaved into it. And her makeup was always glittery, pastel and fum.
“Right, let’s see.” She said, getting Sirius’ full attention once more. “There are a few things that I need to make you aware of.”
Sirius nodded, there couldn’t be much worse than the rotting wood underneath the floorboards she had told him about two months ago. Those would cost a fortune to fix.
“I feel the most important thing should be first,” Pandora said, flipping a page, “and that is the fact that there was a murder here.”
Sirius froze. Never mind, there could be worse than rotting floors.
“Oh, don’t worry.” Pandora said once she noticed Sirius’ face going paler and paler by the second. “It was over thirty years ago and whoever did it is in prison. Wait, actually… he’s dead. I think.”
Sirius thought that Pandora sounded way too chipper to be talking about something like that. She was standing in the house that it happened in for Christ’s sake! Then again, Pandora didn’t really pay any mind to things other people would.
“Er, w-where did it, uh happen?” Sirius managed to ask weakly.
“Upstairs, here I’ll show you!” Pandora chirped and turned to walk up the staircase, Sirius following after her.
The stairs creaked as they walked up the stairs and Sirius looked down to see that the red carpet runner was covered in all sorts of stains — some black, some yellow and even some darker red ones that Sirius hoped to God weren’t blood.
“Right over here.” Pandora said and pointed to the master bedroom. Sirius followed where she was pointing and walked past her and into the bedroom. On the cream carpet was a massive brown stain. Sirius had seen it before but just played it off as a water leak or something. But now, looking up at the ceiling, there was no water stains and that stain was clearly blood.
“They just left it there?” Sirius asked, trying not to freak out.
“Well, the poor man that was killed here didn’t have any family living close by, only his old father,” Pandora said and Sirius couldn’t help feeling sorry for the man, “and no one really bothered with this house so they just left it, yeah.”
“That’s horrible.” Sirius said sadly. He’d hate to die alone like that and then have no one even bother cleaning your blood off of the carpet.
“It is.” Pandora agreed. “Why don’t we finish looking around up here and then go downstairs to finish signing the last contract?”
Sirius nodded, grateful for the topic change and followed the blonde around to look at the master bedroom’s en-suite, the other two guest rooms, another main bathroom and the attic entrance which was a hatchet in the ceiling.
They then went back downstairs and back to the small entrance hall.
“Well you’ve already gotten a full downstairs tour last week until our viewing was unfortunately cut short, so now all you need to know about is that the gas thingy, I completely forgot what it's called! Is well out of date, so it needs to be replaced. Oh and the basement is rat infested, so that needs to be taken care of as well.” Pandora said, handing him the last document. “Just sign here.” She instructed, pointing near the bottom of the paper.
He signed it quickly and handed it back to Pandora, who took it and placed it back in the clipboard.
“Now that that’s over,” she said, taking out the key and handing it to Sirius, who wasn't too excited to take it now, “congratulations, Sirius.”
“Thanks.” Sirius said, smiling back at her.
She gave a little wave as she opened the door, stepped onto the manky porch and closed it behind her. He looked out the small window beside the door frame to see her get in the car. She gave yet another wave just before she got into the driver's seat and drove away.
Sirius stepped back from the window and stared at the key in his hand. He couldn’t help the genuine smile that krept onto his face at the fact this was his home. His rundown, dirty home.
He sighed happily as he put the key into his back pocket and walked into the empty kitchen space. He opened one of the cabinets closest to him but shut it quickly when he saw a thick brown substance oozing down the back of it and collecting in a puddle at the bottom.
That needed to be sorted out asap.
The moving van with all of Sirius’ things wasn’t coming until tomorrow. James had graciously paid for it for him. “As a parting gift.” He had said. Sirius knew it was just to help him out financially. The only things he had for now were in a rucksack in the back of his car. He should go out to get it.
Once he had grabbed his rucksack from the car, taken his computer out and deposited the bag near the front door, he walked into the living room and plopped himself on the couch — laptop open on his lap.
He opened his browser; if he had the time now, he might as well search up what really happened in this house.
The first article that came up had a photo of his house, so it was probably going to give him the information that he was looking for. He clicked onto it and the first thing he saw was a picture of a man; he was around Sirius’ age, which would’ve made him in his early fifties if he were still alive. The man was smiling slightly, a warm sort of smile. He had sandy coloured hair and he was wearing one of those grandfather jumpers and standing outside. Probably in the back garden. It was sunny, so Sirius assumed the photo was taken in summer.
Remus Lupin, aged 20. It read under the photo.
Sirius went on to read the article.
On the night of October 31st 1981, Fenrir Greyback broke into the home of Remus Lupin through the master bedroom window, where he attacked and fatally stabbed the man living there alone. He then exited through the back door downstairs, leaving Lupin to bleed out on the carpet.
It is estimated that Greyback slashed Lupin's body over 32 times. Most wounds were located on his arms and legs, two on his face and one final stab wound to the stomach.
He was found 34 hours later, when he didn’t show up for work and his boss, Minerva McGonagall, called one of his neighbours, who wishes to remain anonymous, to check on him. The authorities arrived after a panicked phone call from the neighbour.
Lupin was pronounced dead on scene at only the age of 21.
Lupin was a librarian for the town’s local library and it is said by his neighbours and regulars of the library that he kept well to himself. That was until the fateful night where he was killed.
The forensic pathologist, Poppy Pomfrey, provided a short statement to the courtroom for Greyback’s trial:
‘The poor man was so riddled with cuts and gashes — two massive ones slashing right across his face and more all over his legs, arms and even a few on his chest. But we found that the final blow was a harsh stab to the stomach.That’s what lost him the most blood, it seemed.’
Sirius then scrolled down to see a woman in her mid forties smiling at him from the screen. She looked kind. Heaven knows how she worked with dead bodies all day.
He continued reading the article.
Greyback had been a wanted man for years before this attack, having brutally killed an estimate of thirteen people over the course of three years.
Greyback was caught driving a stolen vehicle on a quite empty road, when police officer Kingsley Shacklebolt recognised the car that had been reported stolen not even a day earlier. Shacklebolt pulled Greyback over and immediately called for backup once he saw who was driving the car.
Greyback was quickly arrested. Facing trial on February 20th 1982. He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the previous murders and still remains in prison.
Sirius checked the date this was written. Five years ago, so if Pandora was right, he probably only died recently. Good, Sirius thought.
Lupin had no close relatives, so his funeral was fairly small. Consisting of five or so people, including his father, Lyall Lupin. His house remains up for sale — having no buyers yet.
Sirius closed his laptop and leant back into his couch with a sigh. So he was the owner of a murder house. Great.
Sirius checked the time on his watch. 6:48. Since it was autumn, it had started to get dark outside earlier. So Sirius saw no problem with going to sleep now. He was exhausted, and he had to be fully refreshed for when the moving vans arrived. They didn't carry much, just some furniture he bought from charity shops or nicked from footpaths while he was staying with James.
He had upcycled most of it but some bits still needed some more work. Well, he had all the time in the world for that now.
He yawned. Yep, he was definitely going to bed.
Sirius grabbed a thin blanket from his rucksack, because no way was he sleeping upstairs at all for the time being.
Pulling the blanket around himself and lying back on the couch, Sirius fell into an uncomfortable sleep.